Author: Mark

Is British Manufacturing Making a Comeback?

Is British Manufacturing Making a Comeback?

Posted on by Mark

I work in an industry that uses metalworking machinery for cutting, folding and bending metal. Sometimes the machinery goes wrong…

One of the machines used is called a roller. Essentially, this is an electrically driven machine that has a set of three wheels, each wheel is on a shaft and rotates around lengths of metal fed into it. By clamping the wheels onto the length of metal, and applying pressure as the metal passes through, it bends it and the material comes out with a curve of desired radius. Unfortunately the material fed into the machine in this instance was too thick and caused the shaft of one the wheels to shear. Not good.

The machine in question is an AKYAPAK APK30 and the task of organising the repair of it landed on my desk. It needed to be fixed in a hurry as it was required to finish a project. So, no pressure then. I was given the broken component – it was a cylindrical shaft, about 50mm diameter and 300mm long, it had keyways (slots) machined into it and looked fairly intricate. It had snapped almost in half at one of the slots. Obviously a weak point, but this wouldn’t have happened if its maximum material thickness hadn’t been exceeded. Too late to do anything about that now.

I knew little to nothing about it and a quick search revealed that it was manufactured in Turkey and that there is a UK distributor. Phew. I contacted them on a Friday and explained my predicament and they said that they would check the UK stock and also check with the manufacturer. I was told that I wouldn’t probably hear anything until the Monday. Not good.

There’s a local machining company that I was aware of who have the facilities for making this sort of thing but I’d often discounted them because of the cost. Historically when a piece of machinery breaks, it’s always been cheaper to buy the replacement component from the manufacturer, even if it was imported. I’d seen this time and time again and have had things put on urgent delivery from places within the EU such as Italy and Germany. Considering the situation, I thought it was worth a punt, and took a 30 minute drive to the company in question and handed them the broken component and asked if they could copy it. They said for me to leave it with them and they would let me know.

They came back pretty quickly and said that they could do it in 2-3 days for £365 plus VAT. The reason why the could do this was that it wasn’t hardened; that means it didn’t require a heat treatment process which would add to the cost and time to complete.

I then got the price back from the Akyapak UK distributor which was £385 and approximately £90 carriage from Turkey and I would be waiting for 3-4 weeks.

I placed the order with the UK guys and had the component in my hand by the close of business on the Tuesday. They’d beaten their own time target, and the price of the imported component. I’m pleased and impressed with them.

Sterling is taking a bit of a battering at the moment and The Bank of America has likened it to an “emerging market” currency and word is that there is a flight from GBP into US Dollars and Euros. This means that the pound will weaken and imports become more expensive. Add into the mix the problems with goods coming through the trade barriers since Brexit and the delays are likely only going to worsen. This will probably go some way to explaining why it was cheaper and quicker for me to source locally, whether this becomes a continuing pattern will be interesting.

Inflation Again

Inflation Again

Posted on by Mark

Interesting fact from the last quarter of 2020 regarding the US Dollar, and Federal Reserve;

“The Federal Reserve has printed unprecedented amounts of money to support the coronavirus-stricken economy. It has sparked debates about inflation and helped asset prices soar.

Data from the Fed shows that a broad measure of the stock of dollars, known as M2, rose from $15.34 trillion (£11.87 trillion) at the start of the year to $18.72 trillion in September. 

The increase of $3.38 trillion equates to 18 per cent of the total supply of dollars. It means almost one in five dollars was created in 2020″

The UK Government has been on a money printing exercise too. The chickens have come home to roost.

Me vs Fox. Poor Chickens

Me vs Fox. Poor Chickens

Posted on by Mark

I let the chooks out just after I got up this morning, around 4:15am; I figured it was light enough, I hate the thought of them being awake and cooped up in the house. I went back into my house and left the doors onto the garden open, made a cuppa and sat on the bed reading.

Shortly after, I heard a commotion from outside, a chicken commotion, lots of clucking. Either they were having a nasty fight, or something was startling them. I knew pretty quickly that it had to be the fox, the one that I have been spraying my piss over everything to prevent it coming into the garden.

I know that the imagery ain’t great, but I was in my underpants, and I thought “I’ll get the little bastard, grabbed my bath robe and went to the doorway. I could see him about 50 metres away staring into the hen enclosure. I grunted something like “oh do go away you rotten toad” at him, and he heard, looked at me and did nothing. All the time, the hens are clucking like mad.

Now, for some reason, I didn’t put my bath robe on, I just sprinted at him barefoot down the garden in my underpants clutching the bath robe, and I covered the ground pretty fast, I’m quite proud. He soon moved.

Although the chickens were distressed at the time, they quickly calmed down and went on to lay an egg each and were more than happy to see me this evening when I got home. Hopefully these encounters will be few and far between, but if they aren’t, I think that they’ll get pretty desensitised to the fox knowing that he’s got his work cut out getting through or under almost a quarter of a ton of steel. Maybe in time, they’ll give him the birdie?

Anyway, I have CCTV on the enclosure, there’s two segments. The first is when he first appears, the second is where I get involved.

By posting this, I demonstrate that I have no pride and a sense of humour. May you find amusement in my embarrassment.

Video 1 – Fox Arrives

Video 2 – I Arrive. Not for those with weak bladders.

Stuff You Instagram and Meta

Stuff You Instagram and Meta

Posted on by Mark

I was prompted for my date of birth on my elderly Instagram account at the weekend, and thought stuff you, none of your business, so put today’s date. It then prompted me to say that this meant I was zero years old and asked if it was correct. Of course it was! I duly wiped the amniotic fluid off my screen and tapped confirm.

Next thing I see is that my account is locked and that I have to supply ID, and if I don’t my Instagram account, and its data will be deleted in less than a month….

So, I then tap “appeal” and am presented with the following form;

when prompted for an ID image, I take a picture of the sky and send that. In the narrative, I put the following;

“I’m over thirteen, the content on my account over the years makes that very plain to see. I refuse to send you my government ID. For your records my date of birth is as given, 04/04/2000.

Several days later I receive an email from Facebook stating;

“We can’t give you access to this account or help with your request until we receive an accepted form of ID that matches the information listed on the account. Learn more about the types of ID we accept in the Help Center:
https://www.facebook.com/help/159096464162185?ref=cr“

I have now clicked on the link, reviewed, and want to feedback to them regarding this, and there is nowhere that I can find to do that. I have now given up.

I’m not impressed, but what should I expect? It’s a free “service”. Facebook, or Meta, or whatever they call themselves own Instagram and the way that they make money is by getting users to use their “free” service, adding their own content, and then targeting advertising at them depending upon this content, and what they view on the platforms. From what I understand, it is a very precise science and they make a lot, a huge amount of money from it.

From what I also understand is that people are deserting the Meta platforms and as a consequence, their share price has slumped.

And my position in all of this? I can’t contact anyone to apply some common sense, so the only way for me to get my account back and prevent the deletion of years of my images and memories is to upload my government photo ID. Not happening.

Meta can delete my account. It can destroy that which it depends upon. My data, my content, my participation. And my goodwill.

Nope, Meta, I am not playing any longer. If you delete my lovely Instagram account, I’ll take my Facebook with it and remove myself from your platforms completely.

And if anyone is interested before it goes, here’s my lovely (but generic) Instagram account; Mark (@markish99) • Instagram photos and videos

Lay A Little Egg For Me…..

Lay A Little Egg For Me…..

Posted on by Mark

I’ve gone and got some chickens. I finally did it as I have been threatening this for the last couple of years.

The hen house was donated by friends and I was fortunate to have the enclosure built for me.

I installed the chooks a couple of weeks ago and they were a few weeks from being at the point of laying and I am now just starting to get some eggs.

Me so happy!

The only negative is that Mr Fox is patrolling regularly. Now, I can stop this happening, but what it means is that I have to pee into a plastic bottle and distribute it around the garden every evening. If I maintain the regime, no Mr Fox. If I stop for a couple of days, Mr Fox returns.

Now, I don’t think that he’ll be able to get into the enclosure, but Mr Fox is renowned for his persistence, and one day I may slip locking up the hen house, or shutting the enclosure door. So, considering that, I drink lots of fluid, fill up the bottle and spray liberally every evening. Great.

Bank of England Chief – “Sod you lot, I’m alright, Jack”

Bank of England Chief – “Sod you lot, I’m alright, Jack”

Posted on by Mark

Okay, Andrew Bailey didn’t quite say that, but I think that is the essence of what he said.

In a nutshell, he’s gone on record warning about inflation; energy prices, food prices etc. And he’s also said again that workers shouldn’t request pay increases to help dampen the inflation increases. By this, he means you need to suck it up and suffer in silence.

I guess this is another one of those “We’re all in it together” moments. Except we’re not. We’ve already seen that.

MP’s received a 2.7% pay increase last month, this is approximately £2,200 per year and was done after the first time that the Bank of England asked workers to not request sizeable pay increases.

2.7% of the average wage as at February 2022 is £780. Quite a difference. So, Joe Average would get £1,420 less than an MP with the same percentage increase.

Oh, and Mr Bailey earns £570,000.

Michael Gove on BBC News With A Liverpudlian Accent

Michael Gove on BBC News With A Liverpudlian Accent

Posted on by Mark

I had to share as I didn’t believe it myself until I had seen it. Probably not long before Boris Johnson goes on record claiming it’s a deep fake.

Words fail me, I’d hope that he’s not intoxicated, but it would appear that he is. Just after 07:30am. Wow.

This is a government minister on our National Broadcaster.

This should be a moment that causes his political career to tank. But this is the Conservative Party 2022. And we know it doesn’t happen like this. Promotion, maybe?

The Word On Everyone’s Lips; Inflation

The Word On Everyone’s Lips; Inflation

Posted on by Mark

I’ve been meaning to put my two penneth in for a few months now, but events keep happening, things keep changing, I’ve been busy. It’s pretty dynamic out there, but the one thing that is certain, the price of everything is on the up, it’s just a matter of how much. Different things are increasing by different rates for different reasons; there’s the direct costs or input costs for the physical product, there’s distribution costs, there’s scarcity which pushes the cost up, and in the worst cases, a combination of all of the factors.

At work last week I tried to order a couple of boxes of plain copier paper, each box comprises of 5 reams, and a ream is 500 sheets. I’ve been buying these for the last decade for somewhere in the region of £10 plus VAT per box and the last time I purchased was December 2021. This time the cheapest I could get was £21.50 plus VAT, a jump of over 100% in five months. The supplier has largely attributed that increase to scarcity and a quick check with other suppliers revealed the same.

We’ve all seen the jump in the fuel prices in the UK with diesel in the £1.70-1.85 range on average, this is despite the government cutting fuel duty and the barrel price of crude dipping.

We’re being warned that domestic energy prices are likely to jump again by another 40% in October 2022 just in time for the cold weather and dark evenings. I’ve noticed that the wholesale gas price has decreased, so I cannot work that one out – further investigation required.

For those of you with mortgages and other debts, interest rates are on the up and show no sign of stopping; the rate of increase is currently around 0.25% per month and members of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that set the rates are starting to lean towards higher monthly increases. Only this month three of the nine members wanted to increase rates by 0.5%. To put this into perspective, if you had a £250,000 standard variable mortgage and the interest rate is currently 2%, your monthly interest payment for that debt is £417. Now, if that interest rate increases by 0.5%, the monthly interest is now £520 a month, an increase of over £100 per month, or £1200 per year. And that increase could take place in a month. And on several months in a row.

Regarding rented accommodation, I’m starting to hear a lot of anecdotal accounts of landlords increasing rents as their tenancy agreements allow. One local case that I’d heard of recently was of a mother with three children in a three bed house renting for £950 per month being told by the landlord that the market rate for the property was £1450 and that this would be the new rate of rent. That’s an increase of over 50%.

Food pricing is concerning too. Around 80% of the UK’s food is imported which makes us particularly susceptible to global price changes, supply chain disruption and scarcity. Farming UK is a consortium that represents many of the UK’s farmers. Its inflation index showed a 22% increase in input costs to September 2021, and 23% to March 2022. These increases have not yet fed through to the consumer, so that is yet to come.

I’ve been concerned for a while that we’re heading into a perfect storm, things are already horrible for so many currently and it looks like things are going to get far, far worse.

When peoples disposable income reduces or disappears completely because they cannot afford to meet the cost of living, whole industries will start to collapse – hospitality, entertainment. With this, unemployment will spike, there’s increased automation of jobs, it’s looking awful and I cannot comprehend that magnitude of what’s about to happen. There are too many variables and I just cannot process it.

And all the time that this has been unfolding (and if it’s been abundantly obvious to me and many others), our government has either been sleep walking into the situation, or wilfully ignorant of it. Or should that be criminally negligent? I don’t suppose it matters too much, whatever they do, whatever label we apply, they are wholly unaccountable and appear to more non-stick than Teflon Tony himself.

Be safe, be kind and look after one another. The government certainly won’t look after you and it’s going to be awful out there.

Will Tesco Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is?

Will Tesco Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is?

Posted on by Mark

John Allan, Tesco Chairman was speaking today (10th May 2022) on Radio 4 regarding the cost-of-living impact on customers and how some customers were asking checkout staff to stop scanning items when the shop got to a particular value. Staff were being asked to stop at £40, for example as they didn’t want to spend any more than that.

He then went on to detail an “overwhelming need” for a windfall tax on the energy companies and for the money to be diverted to help the public. I couldn’t agree more.

Great sentiment and whilst that’s being worked on, let’s have a look at Tesco themselves;

To the year end of February 26th 2022, their pre-tax profits trebled from £636m to £2.03bn which is pretty impressive. In fact, they haven’t done bad at all during this COVID malarkey and out the other side.

When these profits were announced in April 2022, the Chief Executive Ken Murphy said, “Against a tough backdrop for our customers and with household budgets under pressure, we are laser-focused on keeping the cost of the weekly shop in check – working in close partnerships with our suppliers, as well as doing everything we can to reduce our own costs.”

He added that Tesco was keeping the rise in cost of living “a bit under the number for the overall market”.

Let’s break down his statement a little, he’s acknowledging the difficulties that his customers are experiencing, which is nice, he concedes that prices need to be kept low, good. Now, considering Tesco’s historical reputation of poor treatment of its suppliers, and its sharp practices the “working in close partnerships with our suppliers, as well as doing everything we can to reduce our own costs.” is a bit concerning. I wouldn’t want to be a supplier to Tesco, I think that I’d end up being squeezed and feel the pinch far more than they would. Somehow, I think they’ll (Tesco) find a way to maintain their margins.

And what if Tesco do this? Then just apply a windfall tax on their profits, John Allan is already on board with the concept for the energy companies, I’m sure that he won’t mind if it’s applied to his company for the greater good.

And for the other supermarkets? We’re watching you.

Bank of England Base Rate Increase?

Bank of England Base Rate Increase?

Posted on by Mark

Wow, here I am in the first week of May 2022 and Boris Johnson is still our Prime Minister, just. I cannot believe that he’s still hanging on in there, he obviously doesn’t get embarrassed. I guess few of his ilk do and it reminds me of Shiv Roy and her unforgettable line “We don’t get embarrassed”. If you know, you know.

Anyway, moving onto business.

The Bank of England (BofE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet tomorrow, I think everyone is expecting there to be a change, and realistically, it’s only going one way, and that is up. I’d expect 0.25%, but we could see more, who knows.

One lender got a little over-excited and announced a “change” a day early. Yup, you, Halifax.

They then realised their mistake after a fair few hours;

However it goes, I hope that whatever the changes and how they affect you, that you you keep safe and solvent. The next year or two has the potential to be very ugly….. sending you my very best.

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